This blogging idea requires a lot of attention, it is a high maintenance relationship for sure. Hard to miss a day and recap with the same energy, but I will give it my best. On Sunday we left Gillette later than planned as I mentioned in my last post, but those water slides were calling our name so we just had to take a few slides down. We headed out to our first destination, Mt. Rushmore. It was a 2 hour drive and it was nothing but sky and gorgeous greenery around us. As we neared the Mt. Rushmore monument my dad spotted a sign for Red Ass Wine with a picture of a Red Donkey and felt that we needed to go to the Prarie Berry winery to buy some. Brilliant marketing plan. The winery was packed and my dad bought three bottles of the Red Ass...nice. We made our way over to Mt. Rushmore. It truly is an incredible site to see. I find myself being so amazed at what people have accomplished throughout history. How on earth did someone make those faces so accurately represent each president. Blows my mind really. I don't usually consider myself to be a history obsessed person, but these last few days have made me one for sure.
After Rushmore we headed over to the Crazy Horse monument. The plan for this monument is much more involved than that of the Mt. Rushmore vision, but it is incomplete. My dad was so disappointed in the lack of progress made on the Crazy Horse monument since he was last there in 1961. He seemed a little pissed off that Korczak Ziolkowski had not finished the gig even if he was old and dying. I think my dad's perception of old is a little skewed, right? He is still complaining about the Crazy Horse monument now, oh lord.
Our next destination was a drive through the badlands. We went the scenic route to get there which was so gorgeous. I had so many thoughts about how the Native Americans had to navigate through these lands with no gps or even any idea of what was on the other side. I am so fascinated by how much more intelligent people were when they had to figure things out for themselves. They were so strong and brave. Just the thought provoking sites are enough for me to be in love with this road trip. We finally made it to the badlands after thinking we were lost and having no GPS access...clearly we wouldn't have lasted long in the old days, right? The scenery and environment is so diverse in the badlands, the ground is so dry and colorful and you can just imagine how difficult it would be to get through and why it has its name. Jeremy decided he should try to find a rattle snake and went off into the cracking dry hills, looking in cracks and holes, yikes! The girls were chasing him at first until I freaked out and made them come back to the car. He never found one and probably would have looked for hours had we not all been so starving and ready to move on. On our way out of the badlands we found an area with hundreds of prarie dogs. We pulled over and listened to them calling to each other, surely talking about us and coming up with a plan to get away from these crazy folks coming too close. They are so cute sitting up on their back legs outside of their little homes. The girls were in love.
We headed to Wall for dinner, a place famous for a drug store...long story, but really another brilliantly successful marketing scheme. We decided to eat at the road trip cafe. Quite possible the biggest mistake I have made in a long time, maybe the worst restaurant I have ever been too. I need to figure out how to do more successful research on restaurants here in the midwest, or just give it up and find a spot that looks good. This place didn't even look good, so we should have known. Hunger got the best of our judgement and we caved. Nobody greeted us when we went in and it just looked sketchy, but we were committed. We sat down and everyone was grumpy with each other and a little snappy...Hangry is what we call that, right? The waitress came over and really had no command of the english language, which normally is really no issue for me, except she continued to tell us that they did not serve things that were on the menu because she didn't know what we were saying. I think my irritation was amplified because I was so hungry and just couldn't figure out how to get this sweet girl to get us something to eat. I maintained my calm with her until she brought Mila a portobello mushroom sandwich instead of a hamburger (which were plentiful on the menu) I told her she wanted a real burger and she said they didn't have it. I snatched a menu and showed her and she then understood and Mila got her burger to go about 25 minutes later. It wasn't a good experience at the time, but has now been great material for our driving humor and I think now we are all glad it happened. It is funny how that works.
We took off driving, me behind the wheel, which as many of you know is a little shady after nighfall, but I was good, until I wasn't and then Jeremy took over. My dad is not allowed, by us, to drive at night, so it is either me or Jeremy, so really just Jeremy. Lucky guy! He took us all the way to Mitchell which was actually not as far as we wanted to get, but my dad practically threw a fit about not wanting to drive too long, so we caved. We had seperate rooms this night. We went straight to bed and awoke to my dad and Kaiya calling us from breakfast. It was so dark in the room it felt like I had just gone to bed. We let the girls swim for about 30 minutes and then hit the road with the ladies still in their suits. We drove and drove and drove. I tried to yelp it for a good lunch and found a spot that sounded lovely in Albert Lea, MN. WE got there which was a ways off the highway to find it closed. Grrrrr. We wandered around this quite adorable town and found a hole in the wall cafe called Nancy's. Nancy was the cook and they were so sweet. The food was just food, but at least the service was great. Albert Lea is so cute and so diverse which I thought was odd for a small town in the middle of Minnesota. Everywhere I turned I saw people of different ethnic backgrounds and I just love that. Everyone was so friendly, which I also love. Jeremy and I went into this cute funky coffeehouse after lunch to grab a coffee for the road, it was so portland and they had almond milk, yahooo!! After Albert Lea Jeremy and I spotted and Amish farmer on the side of the highway using a horse drawn tractor. I then became obsessed with finding Amish communities and started tro drive everyone crazy. I decided somehown in my mind that every white house was an Amish Family, which is completely ridiculous, but that is just how I roll. We made it to Geneva Lake, Wisconsin at about 7pm to our hotel Timber Ridge Lodge. This is like a Great Wolf Lodge with an indoor water park, so we quickly headed off for some more splash fun. My dad thought he would try out the pool fun this time, which was a failed mission, he thought the hot tub was too hot (smart actually because some other old guy passed out in there) and the pool he felt was boring. He scraped up his leg getting out of the pool and we had to bandage him up. Phew. He had more fun just watching the girls go down slides and play around. Jeremy and Kaiya loved the big slides and I finally convinced Mila to try them after she had a big freak out about it. She went down with me on the tube slide and her giggles and squeals were just so fun to here. Then it was "again, again!!" for the next hour. Love! We went to dinner in the cute Lake Geneva town at an awesome restaurant. WE didn't get to dinner until 9:30 and the girls were exhausted and almost fell asleep with their faces in their pasta, but we made it through. The dinner was so delicious. Possibly the only good meal we have had on this adventure to date. I had the most amazing Salmon meal I have had in awhile. I could have had two. YUM!
This morning I got up early and went to the spa and the resort. Yes, I went to workout. This is something I have yet to mention, but I have been running every morning people! This is quite the accomplishment for me. I just haven't been able to motivate myself to workout for the past few years and then somehow continue to sign up for Hood to Coast with no training and then almost die, but then do it again the next year. So dumb! So now I am off to a good start of running and weight training at every stop we make. Feels so good! I am really proud of myself. Anyway, the spa here is like a luxurious pampering heaven kind of place with attendees and complimentary razors (and not the single blade kind, lol) I could have stayed there all day, but figured I should come back and take the girls for some more rides down the slides before we head to Chicago. I feel so amazing, perhaps its the endorphins, but maybe it is just a change of pace and scenery. I plan on keeping this head space with me for as long as I can. Don't get me wrong I have had a few moments in which I considered tying myself to the roof rack to get away from this crazy family of mine, but those are few and far between.
xoxo
P.S. Pictures to come
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